Welcome Note

Welcome Everybody! We hope that browsing around our website will be both entertaining and informative.We've tried to keep it up to date with the latest happenings alongwith a few trips down memory lane.​

The following video is from Mary Immaculate Lecturer and a co-author in the Grow in Love series, Dr Dan O Connell. It is a recording on how to use the Grow in Love website. You may find it helpful. It will be a way of reaching out to encourage the great efforts being made around school/homework before the summer holidays.

First Communion

This Saturday was to be First Communion Day for our Second Class boys.Our whole staff will be thinking of them on what promised to be a truly memorable day.The Second Class Teachers, who worked with the boys, in preparing for this day have decided to put together photographs of some of their happiest times with the boys.Enjoy boys - you are in all our thoughts.

A Message from the Staff of CBS Primary

A message from the Principal Mrs O'Callaghan

​Hi everyone,I hope you are all keeping well.Here is my second video message.Again my details are below if anyone needs to contact me.Meanwhile Keep yourselves Safe, Have Courage and Be Kind.Missing you all,Mrs O'Callaghan.

Hello everybody,This is my first video message.If you have any questions that you would like me to answer please text 089 4359977 or send an email to m.ocallaghan@cbspmitchelstown.comI will do my best to answer on my next video message.In the meantime "Have Courage and Be Kind" I look forward to hearing from you.Best wishes,​Mrs O'Callaghan.

Our boys have been building some fabulous Robots over the past few days. Click on the Latest News button above to see some more.

Latest News

We have put together a Latest News Page where you can find out about all the happenings in our School Community.So for the latest on our Bunnies or the winners of our Easter Camp Challenges just click the Button or go the the Drop Down menu under School News.​This weeks activities from your Teachers is also available by going to School News and click on Work from Home in the Drop Down Menu or click on the Button below.

As a staff we have tried to come up with activities for our boys that are both fun and rewarding.The activities on any given day generally go from easy to more challenging.Please do take part and if you can email us to show how you got on.There are four competitions included so watch out for them. ​The activities will be uploaded daily.Just click on the button below!

Our GAA Drills to keep you fit!

New Link Showing All Supports

Mr. O'Shea and Mr Coffey -the Joe Wicks of CBS - are very much engaged with training our boys in GAA skills.They have put together some great activities which we hope will be beneficial.Just click on the age group that best suits your boy.​U-6 U-8 U-10 U-14

All our previous emails to you can be accessed on our site.Just click on the image on the left.Please contact us if you are not getting our emails, or if you have changed any of your own contact details.

cbsmitchprimoffice@cbspmitchelstown.com

Supports For Home Offered by CBS Primary

The staff and CBS Primary are aware of the many pressures placed in family life in light of the Coronavirus pandemic.We are also conscious that Parents/Guardians are being swamped with advice regarding home schooling and entertaining.The aim of our "Supports for Home"page is to lay out clearly the information and supports which we think may be of most use.It can be found directly under "Information for Parents" or by clicking here.

Please Send us your email.

We are currently updating our database of email contacts. Please email us at cbsmitchprimoffice@gmail.com wlth the name of your child. This will be an important line of communication in the coming days. Thank you for your cooperation.

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A message to our Parents/Guardians and Boys,

We are truly in unprecedented times. In the interest of everybody’s safety, the decision to close schools has been taken. Until we hear more on March 29, it is important that each of us follows the guidelines of the health authorities. HSE Guidelines Your children have been assigned school work for the duration., by their teachers . (See Below) We are all requested to reduce social contact. Even when at home , practice good hand hygiene and cough/sneeze etiquette. During the time of school closure, each child should have daily exercise . Spend some time on additional reading and keep screen time to an agreed limit! Perhaps, on occasion ,decide on a family movie ,which would constitute screen time!! It is good practice for life and always ,to help with household chores and, of course, take the opportunity to tidy up play spaces and rooms.(a little everyday!). Maintain the habit of the gratitude journals . We are all disappointed to miss this school time with the boys. However ,the decision taken ,is for the good of our whole community and our country. We support those who are working so hard to limit the spread of Covid 19 . With all of us cooperating, we will, hopefully, get through these weeks safely. Wishing you and your extended families the very best,

The Staff and Management of CBS Primary.

Our Boys Working From Home

Hi all, We hope you are keeping safe and well.As you are aware, our Teachers have assigned work, in order to lessen the impact of School Closures on our boys' learning.The work can be found on our website under School News> Work From Homeor on this link Work From Home.

Please do visit our Website regularly, as it is a vital link for Home - School Communication in our current situation.

Also of interest, is an excellent offer, of one months free online resources from the Twinkl website.This is a tried, tested, reliable resource used by Teachers and Parents alike which usually comes at a cost.​For further information click here.

DES Statement - as of 12th March

12 March 2020 - Statement from the Department of Education and Skills An announcement was made this morning by the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD of the closure from Friday 13 March, of schools, pre-schools and further and higher education settings, for a period until 29 March 2020, to support efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19. This is in line with the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team. All pupils and students, from pre-school to third level are urged to practice social distancing, and to minimise physical contact with each other, to help avoid the spread of Covid-19. This should include minimising social contact, avoiding meeting up and keeping physical space between them. Parents and guardians are urged to support their children to maintain this approach. In order to minimise the impact on teaching and learning all schools will be asked to continue to plan lessons and, where possible, provide online resources for students or online lessons where schools are equipped to do so. Schools are asked to be conscious of students that may not have access to online facilities and to consider this actively in their response. Schools are asked to prioritise supporting exam classes to continue to prepare for State examinations. Physical classes in universities and higher education facilities will not be held during the closure. Institutions can make other arrangements for teaching and learning and other activities in line with their business continuity plans and contingency planning. Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh TD said: “I am deeply conscious of the impact that school and education setting closures have on students, on families and on the wider community. This is a necessary and proportionate measure that we are taking as a pro-active measure to help contain the threat of Covid-19. “This is the right decision at the right time. It is taken in the best interests of our children, our young people, our school and college communities and our wider society. “At this point in time the closure is planned for two weeks, from tomorrow until 29 March. The Government, in conjunction with the public health authorities, will keep the situation under ongoing review. Any change to that date will be communicated widely. “Pupils should take their books and learning materials home with them this evening. “This is a very challenging time for our pupils, our teachers, our students and our colleagues in further and higher education. “Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine – we all live in one another’s shadow. If there was ever a time for us to appreciate how closely we are connected, how much what we do maters to others, how much we rely on each other, this is it. This is a time where we all need to work together for the best possible outcome for our students. The support of everyone across the sector is vital, as we all strive to ensure that this threat is dealt with as effectively as possible.” The Department of Education and Skills will remain open and will continue to provide supports to the education sector at this time. The Department of Education and Skills has been liaising closely on a continual basis with the Department of Health in relation to Coronavirus/Covid-19 since early January. This will continue. ENDS Note for editors The Taoiseach has announced that these measures will take effect from 6pm Thursday 12 March

The CBS Primary Quiz Team are off to the RDS on April 5th for the All Ireland Final of the Credit Unions Quiz.. This is the result of a nail-biting finale of the Chapter Final In Mallow last Saturday night. The competition ended in a three way tie necessitating two tie beakers to separate the teams. CBS Primary however, held their nerve the emerge outright winners on the night, booking their place in the All Ireland Finals. We wish them the very best. Great credit is due to the hard work put in over the year both by the team and their mentor Mr Weir.

Whatever the result on April 5th, the boys will have done us proud.

Gold Medal at CBS Primary

Well done to our champion Arthur who won gold recently in the Cork County B1 (u11) Champion 2020Arthur is a member of the Glen Boxing Club in Cork. He will be fighting for the Munster's in the next few weeks. Best of luck in the next round Arthur! 🥊​

Guitar Lessons at CBS

Last Wednesday, we finished up our final week of Guitar lessons. We spend 6 weeks learning a loadsof songs with Mr. Griffin and Ms. Byrne. These songs included Lisdoonvarna, The Rattlin’ Bogand also more recent songs from The Cranberries and Gavin James. The guitars wereprovided by the school if we didn’t have them and we worked hard practicing our new songsevery week.

Peace Proms

We have been busy preparing and practicing for Peace Proms 2020 that will take place in Waterford IT on March 7 th . We’ll get a bus down on Saturday and come back again that evening. We are learning some really cool songs and dance moves. Our favourite is the Pop Medley which has the songs High Hopes and Rise. We are really looking forward to singing with a choir of up to 3,000 children and performing with a full symphony orchestra..

The Garda Dog Unit comes to CBS

Last week, two guards came to our school to tell us about the Garda Dog Unit. Garda John Condon told us that everybody has their own scent and this is what the dog can smell. He told us how they train the dogs and that the dogs think that following a scent is a game and that they just want their ball as a reward. Then we went outside and he brought in Buddy (from the Garda Dog Unit) and showed us Buddy at work. He hid something in the yard behind a drainage pipe and let Buddy off to see if he could find it. We saw that when Buddy found the hidden item, he wagged his tail and looked at the guard. It was really cool.

C.B.S. Bunnies

​Mrs O'Regan and her class decided they would like to keep some rabbits in their classroom. They looked up Donedeal to see if any were available. They soon spotted two beautiful Lop Eared rabbits, free to a good home in Co. Kildare.Mrs O'Regan travelled all the way up there to collect the two rabbits, one black, one white.When they got back the boys were delighted. They decided to call them Snowball and Black Jack for they were both boys - or so we thought!A great surprise was in store for everyone when Granddad Liam came to visit the classroom and give us some eggs to incubate. He decided to have a look at our rabbits as he is a bit of an animal expert. He informed us that Black Jack was in fact a female and was shortly going to have babies or kits as they are called.Last Saturday the kits were born. Black Jack has hidden them in the hay, so we are not sure how many there are. Snowball has been moved to his own hutch to give Black Jack and the kits some time to themselves.We'll keep you updated on how the kits are doing and also the eggs which are incubating nicely.

Blue-Bots Invade CBS Primary!

In an exciting new initiative, the CBS Primary Parent Council, have kindly facilitated the purchase of a set of 6 Blue-Bots for the school..A Blue-Bot is a simple robot that can operate through manual pressing of its buttons or through programming using an iPad.The package presents our pupils with a host of programming challenges, which the boys must solve, by constructing the correct programme.

Teachers can use Blue-Bot to help teach students logic and sequential thinking. They can challenge students, to see if they can get the Blue-Bots to go around a corner or some simple obstacle. Once they're comfortable, they can attempt obstacle courses of varying difficulties.When the Blue-Bot doesn't move as a student expects, it affords him the opportunity to "debug" and discover what went wrong.As student commands get more complex, simple note-taking to record what movements they've done, are an ideal introduction to programming and ultimately coding.

The Parent Council would also like to remind everyone about their upcoming Bingo in the Town Hall on this Sunday 9th February at 2 p.m.Tom O'Flynn will host with lots of cash prizes, spot prizes and great fun guaranteed!

Success For CBS Primary Once Again!!

Last Sunday,February 2nd, the U11 and U13quiz teams from Mitchelstown CBS Primary competed in the first round of the annual Credit Union quiz. Only one team qualifies from this event to reach the chapter final, so there is no room for error.Both teams acquitted themselves superbly with our U13s being the outright winners. Congratulations to Ryan Spratt, Benjamin Cooke, Luke Cott and Tristian Power for a brilliant performance. They will be busy over the next few weeks in preparation for the next round and are sure to do our school proud. Thanks also to Mitchelstown Credit Union for a well organised event, enjoyed by all participants.

C.B.S. Primary Quiz Team

The CBS Primary Quiz Team had another successful night last Friday. The boys came out on top for the annual Knockadea N.S. quiz which was held in T.O. Park. Over thirty teams took part and the leaderboard was tightly packed however the CBS team performed consistently to win by a single point.The team, which won the Ballygown quiz the weekend before, consists of Tristan Power, Ryan Spratt, Ben Cooke and Luke Cott.We wish the boys the very best in the up-coming Credit Union Quiz.

Invasion of the Blue-Bots....

​In an exciting new initiative our Parent Council have kindly facilitated the purchase of a set of Blue-Bots for the school. A Blue-Bot is a simple robot that can operate through manual pressing of its buttons, through use of a TacTile Reader, or through a tablet.The package presents our pupils with a host of programming challenges which the boys must solve by constructing the correct programme.

Working Hard on Programming!!​

The boys have been working on increasingly difficult programming problems, these skills are a great foundation for computer coding and programming.

"Cosy Christmassy Songs and Stories"​ A Night to Remember In St. George's!

The CBS Boys performed magnificently to a packed audience at St. George's Arts and Heritage Centre.Well done to everyone who helped make the night a great success.From Christmas Carols to Rap to Comedy - this performance had it all. Click on "Latest Happenings" above for the full story and a slideshow of the night's highlights.

Mark Keane Aussie Rules Star Rocks

Not to be outdone by Aaron and Cathail, his contemporaries, Mark Keane surprised us all with a visit on one of his rare trips home from 'down under'Mark, pictured with Mr. Quirke, Mr. Carey and a genuine Aussie rules Football, spoke to the classes about his experiences of living and working in the extremely competitive world of professional football.

Mitchelstown were taking on Nemo Rangers in 2017 when Mark was spotted by a scout. Mark ended up in Melbourne, where he now resides playing as a professional AFL player for Collingwood. Mark represented Cork at minor and at U20 level he was part of the side that contested the Munster final. The Mitchelstown man was involved with the senior squad before departing for Down Under.

Our boys make it 5-in-a-row!!

On Friday 17th January the Quiz Teams of CBS Primary Mitchelstown made their way to Mallow GAA Complex for the annual Ballygown Table Quiz.Almost 100 teams competed so competition was intense. CBS Primary have won this competition every year since 2016, so expectations brought their own pressure.At the halfway stage we were 2 points ahead, a very slender lead given the amount of teams. We performed superbly in the second half and maintained our advantage to the finish.It was a magnificent achievement to retain the perpetual shield and complete the Five- in - a- RowA huge thanks to Ballygown School and Principal John Hannon for an excellently organised and thoroughly enjoyable quiz.

Parent Council Raffle 2019

Above is Breda Hayes winner of the 2nd Place Prize in our Raffle and below Pamela and Tristan collecting the 3rd Place prize on behalf of Jason.

Well done to all the boys who have made this years Parent Council Raffle a resounding success once again.Pictured above are our best sellers throughout the school.Great work boys!

The boys are back in 'Town.​ Mrs O'Callaghan Principal welcomes Aaron and Cathail back to CBS Primary fresh from All Ireland Success.

Presentation to Canon Fitzgerald

We are going to miss Canon Fitzgerald very much. He has been such a part of school life here for so many years. Our thoughts and prayers are with him in this, the next chapter of his life.